Innovation Works has partnered with Baltimore Corps to conduct the following executive search through its Place for Purpose service:

CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER - INNOVATION WORKS
BALTIMORE, MD
 

Innovation Works, a new collaborative knowledge center located in Baltimore, Maryland, seeks an experienced, entrepreneurial professional to serve as its founding Chief Innovation Officer.

ABOUT INNOVATION WORKS

The mission of Innovation Works is to reduce Baltimore’s neighborhood and racial wealth divide by teaching members of disinvested communities how to build and own successful social enterprises, which create sustainable neighborhood economies and result in better family living, more resilient neighborhoods, and a safer more vibrant city.

Innovation Works is a new social enterprise, dedicated to:

  • creating business ventures in Baltimore that address unmet economic needs for residents throughout the city;

  • preparing nontraditional, city-based entrepreneurs to successfully lead these businesses; and

  • creating livable-wage employment for city residents through these new high-impact business ventures. 

INNOVATION WORKS GOALS

  • Launch new, sustainable, mission-driven social enterprises throughout Baltimore

  • Expand employment opportunities in underserved Baltimore neighborhoods

  • Make Baltimore the social enterprise capital of the United States' urban communities

  • Establish a robust plan for the financial sustainability of Innovation Works

INNOVATION WORKS MODEL

Innovation Works is a collaborative effort of the Maryland Province of Jesuits, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Loyola Early Learning Center, St. Ignatius Loyola Academy, and Loyola Blakefield High School. These founding partners are providing financial underwriting for this initiative, and will provide faculty, staff, students, and families from their educational institutions to Innovation Works’ educational and entrepreneurial programs in collaboration with other education and talent development partners.

Innovation Works’ launch and development will be guided by Founding President Frank Knott, a Jesuit-educated, lifetime resident of Baltimore; successful private sector entrepreneur; and founder of ViTAL Economy, an economic development social enterprise that has assisted communities across North America for more than 25 years.

The CIO will accomplish this work by adapting the proven model, methods, and best practices of the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, based at Santa Clara University. Since 2003, The Miller Center has enabled almost 900 social entrepreneurs in developing countries to raise more than $660 million, employ more than 25,000 individuals, and positively impact the lives of nearly 260,000,000 people.

Innovation Works will also assess the experiments to implement the Miller Center Model in the United States by the Center for Social innovation at Marquette University and the Center for Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Detroit Mercy. Additionally, Innovation Works will integrate and modify the social entrepreneurship ignition and ideation best practice programs developed by the Ewing Kaufman Foundation, Company Lab, the Build Institute, and the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Innovation Works proposes to extend the work of these Jesuit institutions by basing its operations, programs, and services in Baltimore’s disinvested and underserved neighborhoods, rather than on a university campus, in order to accomplish the following:

  • Recruit aspiring social entrepreneurs from underserved neighborhoods
  • Help identify economic challenges in underserved neighborhoods around which new business ventures can be developed and expanded to serve needs across urban communities in the United States
  • Assist new social entrepreneurs in the following:
    • Establishing a clear focus for the new business;
    • Articulating the economic value proposition for the business; and
    • Developing a well-defined business plan for the venture.
  • Secure required start-up capital to launch the business
  • Recruit a deep network of experienced entrepreneurs and successful senior business executives who will mentor and advise cohort members as they launch and develop new ventures

POSITION OVERVIEW

Reporting to Innovation Works’ President, the ideal candidate will bring interest, energy, and passion to not only build the Innovation Works model, but also to enhance and improve upon the original vision, based on the candidate’s experience and ideas. Although envisioned to include launch and build, based on best practices, the founding Chief Innovation Officer will bring his/her own set of questions and urban youth development goals, powered by the need to provide positive impact. 

REQUIRED ATTRIBUTES

  • Incredible passion for the Innovation Works mission
  • Private sector entrepreneurial experience
  • Credibility in the Baltimore community
  • Hands-on, roll-up-one’s-sleeves management style to do whatever it takes to get the job done
  • Experience and passion for collaboration and partnering with diverse people and organizations
  • Demonstrated ability to work  collaboratively with people across differences/cultures
  • Experience working in a start-up or intrapreneurial work environment
  • Ability to integrate the principles of Ignatian values into how each social entrepreneur learns to create, build, expand, and sustain a mission-driven enterprise that delivers a service or product that improves the world for the betterment of society and/or humankind, (Applicant is not required to be Jesuit or any specific religion.)

RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Implement programs and services successfully
  • Manage finances
  • Provide direct supervision for staff
  • Build a collaborative network of talent development and innovation ecosystem assets
  • Work collaboratively with Innovation Works’ President to create initial operating plan, formulate performance metrics for programs, and develop appropriate assessments of program outcomes and return on investment (ROI) for financial underwriters

Innovation Works has just completed its first fiscal year. The next 30 months will focus on building the Innovation Works team, creating community-based partnerships critical to success, completing fund development and launching Innovation Works programs. During Innovation Works’ first 30 months of operation, work will be organized in the following three stages:

1. July 2018-June 2019 : Program Development and Launch

  • Finalize the social entrepreneurship training programs design and curricula

  • Develop a recruitment pipeline of community adults interested in participating in the first social entrepreneur training cohort

  • Establish partnerships with mission-aligned organizations to facilitate recruitment of diverse program participants

  • Select and train faculty and mentors for pilot programs, including Ignite, Create, and National Best Practice Scan for Social Innovation Ideas to import to Baltimore

  • Establish performance metrics for evaluating each pilot program, its outcomes, and the initial ROI for financial underwriters

  • Establish Collaborative Research teams for development of econometric modeling, trajectory analysis and dashboard tools for assessing investment impact at neighborhood levels

  • Initiate research team of interested investors and social impact managers to develop criteria for a multi-tiered and collaborative social impact investment fund

  • Develop collaborative partnerships for development of an independent social impact index to measure impact of social innovation investments on community against desired outcomes

2. July 2019-June 2020: Program Expansion

  • Expand recruitment of  potential social enterprise entrepreneurs for the expansion of Create, Grow, and Scale Cohorts

  • Establish and implement a the selection process for the strongest candidates for Create, Grow, and Scale Cohorts

  • Sustain the recruitment pipeline for future social entrepreneur training cohorts

  • Establish a curriculum development team to adapt the social entrepreneur training programs for implementation in the participating Jesuit middle school and high schools

  • Test youth-oriented training curriculum in pilot group of middle and high school students in each of the participating Jesuit educational institutions

  • Implement the performance metric assessments and communicate their results to key stakeholder groups

  • Launch social impact investment fund

3. July 2020- June 2021: Scale and Sustain Programs

  • Expand Create, Grow, and Scale social entrepreneur training cohorts

  • Expand the networks of program mentors and volunteers who will assist in supporting the entrepreneurs/trainees

  • Sustain the recruitment pipeline for future participants in the training program

  • Expand the social enterprise exploration and training programs for youth in participating institutions

  • Continue program evaluations and initiate a process of continuous program improvement based on the results of the performance metric evaluation

Throughout this initial period, the Chief Innovation Officer will create and implement a multimedia communications plan to provide visibility for Innovation Works, its social enterprise training programs, its social entrepreneur graduates, and the new ventures they launch.

QUALIFICATIONS

  • 10+ years of progressively responsible executive experience in either the private or nonprofit sectors, with a history of a collaborative management style
  • 3+ years as either a private or public sector entrepreneur who fully understands the processes for innovation in new products and/or services, the formation of a business enterprise to bring these innovations to market, and the challenges of launching this new enterprise and guiding its initial growth and development
  • Experience in curriculum development (based on best practices taken from the Miller Center and other institutions)
  • Experience recruiting, training, and retaining staff
  • Experience developing and maintaining partnerships and working collaboratively with others
  • Excellent skills in the recruitment of volunteers and collaborative implementation with participating educational institutions a plus
  • Profit & loss responsibility for an enterprise with annual operating revenues and expenses of at least $1 million required


Women and people of color encouraged to apply.

Innovation Works and Baltimore Corps provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Innovation Works and Baltimore Corps comply with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.